Landowners are lining up to keep their acres green
Source: Star Tribune, by Sarah Lemagie
May 29, 2007
Funded by a $20 million bond referendum in 2002, a Dakota County program to protect farmland and natural areas has proved so popular that, four years later, nearly all the money has been spent.
For Ray Taylor, selling the development rights to his Sciota Township farm was a way to ensure that those 160 acres wouldn't be engulfed in the onrushing tide of subdivisions and strip malls.
"I'd like to preserve some of the farmland rather than see it go to houses or airports or golf courses," said Taylor, 77, who hopes to pass on the land to his son and grandson.
Taylor is among dozens of property owners who have jumped on a Dakota County program that buys land and conservation easements from willing sellers to preserve open land with valuable waterways, soil and habitat.
Funded by $20 million that voters approved in a referendum, the Farmland and Natural Areas Program was on the cutting edge of Minnesota conservation when it was approved in 2002. Washington County voters approved a similar referendum last fall, and voters in about 20 Minnesota cities have passed smaller measures in the past 20 years.
Four and a half years later, the program has proved so popular that most of the money in Dakota County has been spent, and the county has already met its goal of conserving 5,000 to 10,000 acres.
The county has tagged about 50 parcels for conservation through the program, totaling more than 6,000 acres -- more than nine square miles. The program aims to set aside properties ranging from 5 to more than 800 acres, including small but popular destinations, such as Patrick Eagan Park and Caponi Art Park in Eagan, as well as large swaths of farmland, including hundreds of acres next to UMore Park in Rosemount.
One program success has been using the money to attract federal and state funding for more land conservation in Dakota County, and property owners themselves have pledged more than $2 million in donations, said county planner Lisa West. As a result, program managers have been able to negotiate for land worth nearly $50 million.
And word of mouth has enabled the program to string together adjoining parcels along more than two miles of the Cannon River, West said.
"Farmers are talking to farmers," she said. "I think we're getting a positive review from the landowners we've dealt with, and they're recommending that other neighboring farmers apply to the program."
Landowners apply to participate in the program, and those accepted sell conservation easements to the county. The land can never be developed, but owners can still live on it, sell it, and pass it on to heirs, and farmers can still farm. Most owners are motivated by the desire to protect their land rather than by money, West said, and some are returning farmland to native prairie or allowing public access to their land.
For Henry Miles' family, the decision to put their Rosemount farm into public hands came out of a dinner-table discussion five years ago. In 2005, the family sold 460 acres adjacent to UMore Park and split by the Vermillion River in a deal partly funded by the county program.
The achievement was particularly special for Miles' father, who bought the land in the 1960s "as an escape from corporate America," Henry said. James Miles, now in his 80s, has been an invalid since suffering a head injury, but he still savored the moment when he knew the land would go back to nature.
"He gets a twinkle in his eye, and he did when we got this deal done," said his son. "It was very satisfying for him."
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